 |
|
Rear Admiral G.S. Ritchie |
Today British Admiralty charts are carried onboard virtually every British and innumerable foreign vessels sailing in all parts of the world. The practice of supplying the Fleet and the merchant marine with up-to-date charts produced under Admiralty auspices dates back to the early days of the nineteenth century.
|
Today British Admiralty charts are carried onboard virtually every British and innumerable foreign vessels sailing in all parts of the world. The practice of supplying the Fleet and the merchant marine with up-to-date charts produced under Admiralty auspices dates back to the early days of the nineteenth century.
Using the extensive archival material which has been uncovered in the British Hydrographic Office in recent years, and taking into account a number of relevant books and papers which have been published since 1967, this New Edition of "The Admiralty Chart" has been revised and completely updated. Rear Admiral Ritchie describes just what has lain behind the compilation of those charts - the organisation, the development of surveying techniques, the expeditions and above all the personalities. Drawing on his own experience as a former naval surveyor he conveys very clearly to the reader the work of the Surveying Service in peace and war, and the courage and dedication of those employed in it.
Dalrymple, Vancouver, Flinders, Franklin, Beaufort, FitzRoy, Darwin, Huxley and Wharton all figure prominently in these pages, for the history of the Admiralty Hydrographic Office and the Surveying Service tells the story of many of the greatest scientist and explorers who kept Britain in the forefront of nineteenth-century discovery.
The text is illustrated with a wealth of maps and photographs.
|
|
|
|
